benad's Journal: The Art of Constructive Criticism

I can't believe I almost started a flame war on VersionTracker.

I was trying to use Haxial TextEdit, when I realized it had an UI so bad it wasn't worth learning. Yes, learning an UI for something functionally equivalent to Windows' Notepad.

So, from 1 to 5 stars rating, I rated it 2:

Terrible UI. If you're going to waste your time learning a non-standard UI, you're better off doing so with Emacs. At least Emacs is worth the steep learning curve.

Well, that was a bit harsh. But I come to think about it, I was saying "make your software worth learning". Like Emacs.

Just for fun, here's what I found in about 5 minutes. I'm talking about version 1.3.

UI problems (no reference whatsoever to any standard or OS):

• There's this weird menu on the title bar that doesn't make any sense.
• No visual feedback when you save.
• No visual feedback when you start modifying the file.
• File->Close is missing (!).
• "Save As..." starts always at the "root" (/Volumes), instead of the directory where the file you're saving is.
• No way to "cancel" the action of the maximize button of a window.
• Window widgets are activated on mouse down, instead of mouse up, unlike all other buttons.
• The minization is useless; can't close or save a minimized window without maximizing it again, so you're better off keeping the window "normal".

Missing features (compared to Notepad!!!):

• Can't deactivate "soft line breaks"; you can't have horizontal scroll bars.
• Can't print.
• Can't copy paste!!!!

Got it? Bad. Really bad. Now look at the replies here. You'll be surprised. Oh well...

- Benad